The 2010s were supposed to bring the ebook revolution. It never quite came.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Yep. And, unfortunately, a lot of them aren't very good. I've come to that conclusion after reading quite a few of these free and cheap books from Amazon. I haven't downloaded one of my free Prime books in about six months. I go to Overdrive instead. Mostly I use Amazon for inexpensive reprint books (on history or religion) not for novels.

I've picked up a bunch of books by Raymond Chandler, Steinbeck, Amy Tan, Richard Matheson, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc. for $1.99 or less. I'd say they were very good books.

Maybe I just have lower standards than you.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've picked up a bunch of books by Raymond Chandler, Steinbeck, Amy Tan, Richard Matheson, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc. for $1.99 or less. I'd say they were very good books.

Maybe I just have lower standards than you.

Were those every day prices or special sale prices?

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by jscris

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/...uit-apple-ipad

Thanks, very interesting. I am one of the boomers who gets everything via ebooks, cause I don't have to leave the house, and I can increase the font if I wake up the middle of the night and want to read.

[leebase]

Setting 9.99 for the entire NYT's best seller list all the time is way beyond “loss leader” and clearly was mentioned as a money losing strategy in the law suit.

It was such an anti-competitive program that all, of the big 5 publishers went to war over it. Apple refused to enter the market if Amazon was going to be allowed to sell all of the best sellers at a loss.

Amazon could have maintained the $9.99 price...but the books would have been time windowed...just like the paper back version has never come out during the new book high demand time window.

Amazon chose, AMAZON CHOSE, to accept publisher pricing rather than have their enooks time windowed. Clearly Amazon knew that most of the sales happen during the new book time window just as Apple new that it wasn’t worth becoming an ebook retailer of Amazon set the price at the “lose money” level.

Cote ruled against the Apple and the Publishers....but left Amazon's anti-competitive practice untouched. You can’t collide as a remedy to anti-competitive behavior. They should have sued Amazon. But.....look at Samsung....it’s well worth the billion dollar fine years from now in order to copy your way into a leadership position in the mean time.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've picked up a bunch of books by Raymond Chandler, Steinbeck, Amy Tan, Richard Matheson, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc. for $1.99 or less. I'd say they were very good books.

Maybe I just have lower standards than you.

At least you're snarkier than I am. That's basically what I buy on Amazon, stuff that goes on sale (i.e., you can't say, "Hey I want to buy Lord of the Rings today" and expect it will be priced at $1.99 at Amazon today, ditto in reference to the other authors) — or I buy classics that are in the Public Domain that have been "cleaned up."

What I was actually talking about is the stuff that Amazon sells cheap or puts on their Unlimited or free Prime reading lists. Most of that is basically "you get what you don't pay for." I thought I was pretty clear about what I was talking about in my original post.

(Dang, that "snarky" thing is catching.)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by not reading

I would add salary, space, overhead etc. related to operations, warehouse, and shipping teams.

The financing cost of physical books, physical space, staff, etc. is a major "hidden" expense. That is a bit tricky to estimate (there is financing from vendors, from banks, from equity owners).

These days financing costs are relatively cheap by historic standards, but have a lot of runway to rise very quickly. Also, I don't think banks and investors are scrambling to invest in the publishing industry, so publishers will pay high financing rates if they can find people who want to extend loans or equity.

Penguin Random House had the best first half of 2019 in 12 years. The major publishers aren't hurting for money. Audiobooks are the big growth industry right now.

[LordP]

Honestly, I took to ebooks like a duck to water.

In my job, I traveled extensively, Hawaii to Puerto Rico, all of the US & Canada, sometimes to Europe.

When I traveled I always had four or five paperbacks, or more if the trip was extended, and now I can carry hundreds if I want.

Of course, resizing fonts etc. is also great, but for me, portability was a tremendous boon.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by LordP

Honestly, I took to ebooks like a duck to water.

In my job, I traveled extensively, Hawaii to Puerto Rico, all of the US & Canada, sometimes to Europe.

When I traveled I always had four or five paperbacks, or more if the trip was extended, and now I can carry hundreds if I want.

Of course, resizing fonts etc. is also great, but for me, portability was a tremendous boon.

Preach on brother! That was me for years. When I use to go on week long beach camping trips, I would carry a dozen books with me. With eBooks, I have my entire library with me at all times. Heck, now I can even recharge the reading device with a portable solar array and charging device if I'm at a primitive camp site with no electricity, all of which weighs less than 5 pounds and fits easily in one of the pockets in my backpack. Add in reading devices with batteries that both hold a charge for a long time and last a week and it don't get no better than that!

[lazyreadr]

Ebooks aren’t only selling less than everyone predicted they would at the beginning of the decade. They also cost more than everyone predicted they would — and consistently, they cost more than their print equivalents.

I would agree that the big revolution did not come, but we are seeing kind of a slow change with some of the similar problems going on as was happening in the music / mp3 market.

On the one hand I am not sure how realistic that 20% market share is. It seems to be a sales figure and as such does not reflect the black market, which is probably substantial. mp3's were probably more downloaded illegally than ever bought. Nowadays most income of major acts comes from gigs and merchandise and not from music sales any more, which has turned into abonnement systems mostly.

I have no idea how the ratios are in the book market. But you have the same roadblocks. Either you buy into Amazons closed vendor-lock-in system. Then everything is simple and mass-market ready. Or if you don't then you need to be careful with DRM and jump through loops.

Realistically using calibre is too cumbersome for the mass-markets. And the price difference between ebooks and paperbooks is often low together with the entry price of a reader. So I am not surprised that a good part of the mass-market stays with paperbacks.

I will watch with interest how the market develops in the future. But I would not be surprised to see it going the same way down the drain as the music market.
Well "down the drain" is relative. Money is still beeing earned, just differently.

[DiapDealer]

The selling point for me RE ebooks was the immediacy. I no longer had to plan my reading. Didn't have to order ahead to have pbooks delivered. Didn't have to waste time at the local podunk library settling for titles that wouldn't have been my 3rd, 4th, 5th choices, if I had my drothers. Didn't have to plan trips to a quality bookstore--that may or may not have the books that interest me (and said bookstores were, and are, far enough away for fuel and time to be constraining factors). Didn't have to figure out which books (physical or electronic) to travel with me. I finish one book, do a little online browsing, buy something new and start reading it within minutes of finishing the last one--from anywhere in the world I choose to be. No lists, no shelves, no waiting no additional costs; just pure, free-range, on-demand reading with almost no stumbling blocks.

Yeah. Ebooks were a revolution for me. And they're not going to go away.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The selling point for me RE ebooks was the immediacy. I no longer had to plan my reading. Didn't have to order ahead to have pbooks delivered. Didn't have to waste time at the local podunk library settling for titles that wouldn't have been my 3rd, 4th, 5th choices, if I had my drothers. Didn't have to plan trips to a quality bookstore--that may or may not have the books that interest me (and said bookstores were, and are, far enough away for fuel and time to be constraining factors). Didn't have to figure out which books (physical or electronic) to travel with me. I finish one book, do a little online browsing, buy something new and start reading it within minutes of finishing the last one--from anywhere in the world I choose to be. No lists, no shelves, no waiting no additional costs; just pure, free-range, on-demand reading with almost no stumbling blocks.

Yeah. Ebooks were a revolution for me. And they're not going to go away.

Perhaps the Title of Vox's article should have been, "Ebooks didn't turn out the way I thought they would and why I totally blame Apple and the Big 5 publishers because I was totally wrong".

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Were those every day prices or special sale prices?

On sale of course. I don't expect The Hobbit or What We Talk About When We Talk About Love to be regularly priced at $1.99 until they hit the public domain.

But tell me, can you go into a new book store and pick up a copy of The Hobbit at that price, at any time you want? I don't remember my local B&N ever selling the book for two bucks.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

What I was actually talking about is the stuff that Amazon sells cheap or puts on their Unlimited or free Prime reading lists. Most of that is basically "you get what you don't pay for." I thought I was pretty clear about what I was talking about in my original post.

You were clear enough. But your point ignores Sturgeon's Law:

"ninety percent of everything is crap."

So I just had fun with your point while also showing that you can get great deals with ebooks, if you care to.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

So I just had fun with your point while also showing that you can get great deals with ebooks, if you care to.

I guess I was the one being "snarky." Sorry. I know you can get good deals waiting for a sale (or buying series bundles, etc.) and I look for these. But if new novels were still $10, the publishers would get a lot more business from me.

I wonder if anyone in the publishing business has considered selling eBook novels for $15 (or whatever the current price is) until the paperback version came out and then dropping that eBook to $10. Then those who wanted the book early (as they used to with hardbacks) could pay the higher price and those who traditionally waited for the paperback book's release could pay a "paperback" weighted price for the eBook.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I guess I was the one being "snarky." Sorry. I know you can get good deals waiting for a sale (or buying series bundles, etc.) and I look for these. But if new novels were still $10, the publishers would get a lot more business from me.

I wonder if anyone in the publishing business has considered selling eBook novels for $15 (or whatever the current price is) until the paperback version came out and then dropping that eBook to $10. Then those who wanted the book early (as they used to with hardbacks) could pay the higher price and those who traditionally waited for the paperback book's release could pay a "paperback" weighted price for the eBook.

That's basically what they are doing. Ebooks track the current paper price, be it hard back or mass market paperback.
Uncompromising Honor - Kindle $5.99, Mass Market Paperback $5.99.
Smoke Bitten (upcoming Mercy Thompson book) preorder prices - Kindle $13.99, Hardback $19.60
Silence Fallen (previous Mercy Thompson book) Kindle - $7.99, Mass Market paper $7.57.